Russian media publicized the motto ‘Death to Muscovite Priests!,’ ascribing it to the ultra right-wing in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Security Service cautioned earlier about the provocations with these fake flyers. The Russian media and the Russian Investigative Committee are also discovering their own ‘new details’ on the arrest of the so-called fighter from Dnipro battalion – this time they even uploaded a video. However, battalion commander Yury Bereza continues to emphasize that this fighter never existed in the first place.

Journalists from the Russian Channel 5 called Svoboda party supporters nationalist and extremists in their report on the march commemorating the anniversary of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) in Kyiv. They also stated: “Earlier the ultra right-wing threatened all the priests and stated they were preparing a siege of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery. In some cities they spread flyers which directly state: ‘Death to Muscovite priests.’ Russian Orthodox Church representatives called to protect the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from such infringements.”

The flyers demonstrated in the video of Russian Channel 5 are the fakes the SBU earlier published a message on their official website about.

“The Ukrainian Security Service warns about yet another provocation organized within the information war against Ukraine. Pro-Russian groups on social networks are actively spreading primitive fakes whose aims is the incitement of inter-religious animosity, destabilization and provocation of social tensions in society. The SBU calls not to give into this primitive provocation, as the goal of its developers is to provoke conflict between those who buy into these lies and those who come to defend the ‘victims’,” said the message.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate also warned about provocations last week.

“Under the guise of Ukrainian nationalists and supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchies, attacks on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the temples of the Moscow Patriarchate are being planned,” the statement notes.

According to the UOC KP, there was information from various regions of Ukraine on the spread of flyers allegedly in the name of Ukrainian patriots and supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchate, which contains calls to commit “physical violence” against the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate and capture their temples on Pokrova, October 14.

The inexistent Dnipro battalion fighter now has a video

The Russian Investigative Committee website published a video with the so-called Dnipro battalion on Tuesday, whose arrest Russian media reported back on October 1.

Russian TV channel LifeNews shared a video in which the man talks about himself.

“Dnipro battalion fighter Serhiy Lytvynov infiltrated Russia to cure a bad tooth. This is the explanation offered by the detainee himself,” said the LifeNews anchor.

Face expert Svitlana Filatova analyzed the video with the man live on LifeNews. According to her, so-called Serhiy Lytvynov is lying. If we are to listen to the entire video, it only includes a tale about how his wife had advised him to go to Russia for treatment, as there was war in Ukraine and they would be unable to give him appropriate assistance. And in the video on the Russian Investigative Committee website he says: “Lytvynov Serhiy Mykolayovych, born March 8, raised in the capital Luhansk district in the village of Kamysh, lived there as well. I have a wife and a daughter.” Later he is asked about his attitude towards the people who kill children to which he says it is very bad. There are no testimonies about the battalion or its illegitimate actions on this video.

Dnipro battalion command Yury Bereza told Radio Liberty once more that there has never been such a fighter in the battalion.

“There is nobody with this surname in Dnipro battalion and there never has been,” he emphasized. And to the fact that there is a video with this so-called fighter, he responded: “They need to point someone out, so they did. How should I comment on the actions of madmen? They are crazy. They live in their own world, on Mars or something.”

Dnipro battalion press secretary Kateryna Leonova also claims this is all a provocation.

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. government that provides "news, information, and analysis" to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed."

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